Our Christmas Trip to Utah - Part 1

For the second time in the six years (at least going on six) that we have lived in Kazakhstan, we decided to travel during winter break back home to Utah.  The University will pay for two trips a year, but we liked staying in Astana and celebrating New Year with Babushka on the quiet campus. We also love our family and we had the need for Nika to take exams for her BYU online high school, so we braved the winter weather again.  We also took advantage of the extra trip to bring back things that we won't need so we have less to bring back when we come home to move to Texas in the summer of 2020. (Well, Yulia took advantage and packed a bunch of stuff.)

Our trip changed from the time we booked the travel in September to when we were flying out.  We were supposed to fly Astana-Frankfurt-Chicago-Salt Lake City.  The itinerary was changed (we suspect because of changes to flight schedules from Chicago to SLC) to include a stop in Denver after we landed in Chicago.  In both itineraries we had tight connections (1 hour in Frankfurt and just under 2 hours in Chicago).

We started early in the morning - leaving for the airport at 2:30 a.m. on 11 December).  We were worried once we checked in because the flight tracker showed that the flight from Almaty (Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt-Astana-Almaty-Astana-Frankfurt) was late.  We were happy when we learned that the flight had left on time.  It landed in Astana on time and we boarded with no problem.... and then the auxiliary power unit (APU) went out and we were plunged into darkness.  Long story, short, our flight was delayed by about 40 minutes taking off.  We resigned ourselves to a rough adventure of missed flights and delays.

We made up time in the air, though and landed only about twenty minutes late in Frankfurt.  We also arrived at the Z terminal - the same one our flight was out of.  Joy! They made us completely exit the security zone and re-enter security during shift change. Misery!  By the time we got through security, the boarding time for the flight was at its end.  We ran (literally) from security through the duty free and down the concourse.   The doors on our flight had been closed, but they opened up boarding because our family of six plus one other family arrived just then.

United had already begun the process of re-booking, so they broke me and the families itinerary up and gave us new seats.  We were told we could sit in our original economy plus seats, though, so we boarded.  We had to kick out some opportunistic passengers who had moved into our empty two rows of seats. They were unhappy, but they were our seats and we were not going to back down....

Our flight to Chicago left a few minutes late, but we landed in Chicago on schedule.  At the same time as four or five other international flights.  The immigration and customs lines were all understaffed and we were herded into one mega line that it took us 90 minutes to get through.  When we got through to the baggage carousel, we were missing one bag - the one bag that had all of mine and Yulia's clothes.  We went through and went to recheck our bags and we were told to go directly to customer service.  We had missed our connection to Denver.

It took about twenty minutes to re-book us on a flight to San Francisco and from there to SLC.  We went to our next terminal and through security (with a few adventures) and then picked up some lunch/dinner to eat as we waited 2.5 hours for our flight to San Francisco.  Long story short - we made it to Salt Lake 7 hours late and our bag and our rides (my mom and sister in law, Shellee) were there waiting.  All's well that ends well.  We were in Utah.

At Astana Airport waiting for the first flight.

In Chicago.... looking loopy after 24 hours of travel.

The Mountains of Utah.  It was warm and snowless in the valley mostly, but the mountains are awesome.

After resting for a couple of days, Nika started her testing at the BYU distance learning testing center.  She got A- on most of her exams (in Algebra 2 and English she got As on the exams), but earned As in all of her classes.  While she was taking exams, I was working at the BYU library.  There were some books I needed for a paper I am working on - so I got the books and used the scanners there to scan the chapters I needed.  I also did some writing.

In summer 2018 we met with some of my high school friends.  Nika and Dan's son, London correspond via gmail still and they told us we should all get together.  Dan and I arranged to meet up before his family went to California for Christmas.  We went to their house for Sunday dinner - delicious tacos and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  We had a great time visiting and catching up.  Dan gave us a signed copy of his latest book - The Star Shepherd.  I am looking forward to reading it still - I haven't been able to get it away from the girls yet.

The kids trying to pose (one of Dan's girls is missing from the picture because she was down with flu that day)

The grown ups (in my hands is a signed copy of Dan's book)

On Tuesday, December 17 we went to Salt Lake City in the afternoon after Nika had finished her tests for the day.  Last time we went to the US we went to see a Jazz game.  The girls really liked it.  Rather than doing presents - since we are trying to avoid accumulating more stuff - we offered the Jazz game for a Christmas present this year.  The kids jumped at the chance.  We got tickets in the second row of the second level in a really nice location on the court.  We also wanted to go and see Temple Square.  It wasn't really "Christmas feel" when we walked through since it was still light and there was no snow.  We did make it to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and saw the big Christmas tree, some carolers, and the "Light the World" service vending machines.  It was a nice little visit.

Then we went across the street and had lunch before walking down to the Vivint Smart Home Center to watch the game.  The kids and I all got through security and were scanning our tickets and I looked around and Yulia was missing.  She was stuck at security.  She wasn't allowed to bring her big camera in with her.  Our car was parked half a mile away.  I ran it to the car while Yulia and the girls browsed in the team store.  When I got back, we all picked our Jazz gear, paid for it, and then found our seats for the game.

The Jazz were playing Orlando.  The team won - in an exciting and fun game.  Last time we watched, they also won.  But Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell didn't play in that game.  In this one they did, and we had a great time.  The experience was worth it.

Salt Lake Temple

Watching the carolers

Alexandra

Polina and Veronika

The whole family

We had fun buying some vaccines!

Temple after we ate and were walking to Jazz game.

Beautiful night view of Temple Square.

Walking to the Jazz game.

Comparing foot size with Rudy Gobert!  Rudy wins!!!

Jazz Uniforms through the ages.

Tip off!

Girls watching the action.

Yulia and I in our Jazz gear having a fantastic time.

Trip to Utah Part 2 - Fun Times

This post is kind of a potpourri of the different things we did while in Utah this summer.

Our summer vacations to Utah always fill up with fun adventures.  One of the traditions that we have had is to enroll our kids in swimming lessons in Payson while we are there. Before we moved to Kazakhstan our kids weren't strong swimmers.  After our first adventure to Thailand they understood that to have fun in the water meant they needed to swim better, so they've been diligent about learning. They took two weeks worth of lessons and all passed their levels and their classes and are all getting to be quite strong swimmers.

Twins kicking and not having any fun at all.

Diving (Sophia)

Sophie has some water in her ears.

Lexa

Fun times with the Sillardsons.

Lina swimming.

Diving. Lina had to overcome her fears of diving - and did so like a champ.

Nika.

Nika diving.

Nika.

Oma gave the girls some nice summer hats for a fun picture on Lina's birthday.

Sisters!

Polina always has her birthday somewhere different and fun.  Her birthday this year was in Payson. After swimming lessons she wanted to go to Hu-Hot for her birthday lunch.  We were supposed to meet her cousin Karlie there.  That morning Karlie found out that she has type 1 diabetes.  She had to get to the hospital to get her blood chemistry under control, so when she was settled, we went and visited.  We took the party to her.

With Karlie at the hospital.

Birthday cake - angel food with berries.

We made up for the missed birthday Hu-Hot by going back on the last day we were in town.  Karlie and Aunt Rachel were able to join us this time!  Look at those smiles.

The girls wanted/needed covers for their ice skates for when they dress up in their fancy skating costumes.  Yulia turned it into a project over the summer and helped the girls learn how to sew at the same time.

Working on the pattern.

Sewing (Lexa)

One adventure this summer was that Alexandra had to get glasses.  It is much easier to tell the twins apart quickly now.

Another feature of our summer was that the girls did cooking at Oma's house again.

Sophie pooped out from all the adventures.

While Nika and Lina were at Girl's camp, the twins had an adventure with mom and Oma!

The last few years we've tried to do different hikes while we are home visiting.  This year we hiked up to Stuart Falls (behind Sundance Ski resort).  We went up on the first day it was opened - snow kept the Alpine loop closed until much later than usual this year.  The hike was beautiful.  It misted a bit on us on our way up.  On the way down we got a bit of a soaker going.  It is always amazing to me just how quickly you can get totally away from the urban valleys of Utah into the wilderness.

Hikers!

View across the valley toward Sundance.

Trees that had been knocked over by an avalanche.

Plenty of snow still.

At the falls.

The falls were beautiful and very full.

The girls and papa.  Lina didn't come with us because her stomach hurt.

The expedition leader.

Alexandra without her glasses.

Mama and Papa made it!

We had a family reunion with our Willardson family members and stayed overnight at aunt Kathi's house.  Saturday morning we stopped by the Logan Airport to see the planes at the fly-in breakfast that they put on once a month.  A lot of the planes are kit planes that people built.  They were fun little planes to look at.  There was an Apache helicopter parked there as well.  It was being flown to Fort Rucker (home of Army Aviation) for repair. The pilots who were flying it each had over 30 years of flying experience.  They were tinkering with it, putting in fluids, and calling on their phone.  We stayed and waited until it took off.  It was fun.  I had seen them quite a bit when I was in Iraq, but none of the kids had ever been up close with a real military helicopter, so that was an adventure.

Pilots inspecting.

We got to go up close and look.

Pilots telling us about the bird.

Cache Valley in June.  Lots of Snow on the mountains. Beautiful deep colors.

Leaving Cache Valley.

The simple things that we do are often the most meaningful.  Spending time with family, in nature, or just taking advantage of little adventures when they come up is rewarding.  Even though we didn't have a lot of "grand adventures" planned during the visit, we had a grand time nonetheless.